RoboCop statue for Detroit receives funding

You know that you live in the future when technology is used to raise funds for a metal statue of RoboCop.

On February 7, Detroit mayor Dave Bing was asked on Twitter if he would consider erecting a statue in his city to honor the half-man, half-machine, all cop movie character. Originally played by Peter Weller in the 1987 movie RoboCop, the cyborg was received warmly by movie-goers. Two more RoboCop movies followed as well as a mini-series. A plan to reboot the series under the eye of Black Swan director Darren Aronofsky failed to happen due in part to financial woes experienced by MGM.

Mayor Bing's reply was short and seemingly negative. "There are not any plans to erect a statue to Robocop," Bing replied, thinking that the matter was settled.

It wasn't.

Thanks to a website called Kickstarter that sources fundraising from a large pool of visitors, more than $50,000 was raised in three days from people that want to see Detroit get its RoboCop statue. With 37 days still left in the fundraising campaign, more donations are still trickling in. People that give their cash toward seeing the statue becoming a reality can receive special acknowledgement, such as pins, t-shirts and an invite to a special get together.

While the money may be a sure thing, so far neither Mayor Bing nor any of the municipal Detroit workers have said that they will allow the RoboCop statue to be raised somewhere in the city. It's not even clear whether anyone from the Mayor's office knows about the Kickstarter project.